Thanks for the detailed description, Ben. I think there is still likely
some confusion in the use of the word 'hinting' in this context. In my
circles -- font developers -- hinting refers specifically to the
TrueType instruction set.
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/ttinst.htmhttp://www.microsoft.com/typography/TrueTypeHintingIntro.mspx
[I'll ignore PostScript font hinting for now, which is a bit of a
different beast but also consists of font data.]
Our experience of OSX Quartz rendering is that TrueType instructions in
the font are ignored by the renderer except when anti-aliasing is turned
off completely at very small sizes.
> The constant percentage dilation of outlines of lcd smoothed text is
> essentially auto-hinting, though rather heavy handed.
Insofar as hinting is a process of distorting outline geometry in order
to achieve particular rendering results, I suppose this could indeed be
considered a form of 'auto-hinting', but I think the phrase will confuse
many font developers who are used to thinking of hinting as instructions
put in the font data and interpreted by the renderer.
JH